How to open a seating die

[Lead melter]

In an attempt to increase the diameter of some 38-55 boolits, I beagled my Lee .379-250-RN/FP. The H&R I have will not shoot anything smaller than .379, and I hoped to get a little more diameter to possibly drive them a bit faster. Beagled boolits dropped out at .380-.382 depending on where they are measured. I used a harder mixture than normal, 1 part 20:1 and 1 part monotype, to try to get all the diameter I could. Lubed with LLA, as I have no sizer for this diameter.

Loaded the boolits in reformed 30-30 Win cases and kept OAL to 2.470". As I was seating them, I had a few boolits stick in the seating die, and also had a few that seated a lot deeper. Yes, I was crimping at that step as well. My first thought was that my seating plug had gotten fouled with dried LLA and stuck in place, so it was removed and no LLA found to cause problems on the plug, or in the die.

Reset the die back in the press, adjusted the seating plug on a properly seated cartridge and proceeded. After 2 or 3 more press strokes the same problem arose again.

Removed the seating plug again and found the boolit sticking in the roll crimp ring of the die. A slight tap with a pencil knocked it out, but there is obviously a problem somewhere.

I started looking at the seating die, and there in clear engraving is ."375" diameter. My 38-55 die has the same seating tolerences as the 375 Winchester. As near as I can figure, the larger diameter of the beagled boolit was just enough to catch on the crimp ring, as none of the .379" boolits gave any real problem.

Now, I plan to shoot these tomorrow to evaluate their worth, and if they are found to do better than the .379", I must address this problem in some way.

My first thought would be to enlarge the crimp ring diameter slightly. Having no access to a lathe, this presents a problem. So, I'm thinking maybe a 1/4" dowel rod with 1200 grit or crocus cloth wrapped around it. Give it a few dozen slow turns and try again?

Opinions and ideas are welcome.

[hiram]

Lee might make a factory crimp die in your size.

[454PB]

Maybe I'm over simplifying the problem, but why not just raise the seating die, seat all the boolits, then reset the crimping setting and crimp in a second operation?

[jonk]

I've had similar issues with my 11mm Mauser. My bore diameter on my 1871, instead of the textbook .446 is .451. Now a .452+ .45 ACP bullet works fine but is very hard to seat, even in unsized cartridges- not enough clearance in the die. I was thinking of trying the same procedure. At very least you could send it back to lee; they'd modify it I'm sure- for how much I dunno.

[Lead melter]

454PB,
That is not too simple. Matter of fact, it is a good idea.

I tried to do the very thing, but if I back off the die enough to eliminate the crimp, I very nearly run out of seating plug depth...the plug adjustment screw is just about bottomed out, plus at that point is where the boolits get stuck and pull back out of the case. The nose of the boolit still has to stick through the crimp ring in order to touch the seating plug and therein lies the problem.

My thought is that I has a 38-55 length die set with a crimp ring and seating plug for a 375 Winchester.

All my 38-55 brass is loaded at this time, or I would try that and see if it also makes any difference. I can't see how longer, yet thinner, brass would differ, but I don't know everything.

[oneokie]

Have you thought about putting something between the seater plug and the adjusting stem?

[Lead melter]

It's worth a try. Now I might have a use for a .357" boolit. :kidding:

[mtgrs737]

I sent a set of Lee Collet dies back to Lee so they could open up the seating die to accommodate a 6.5mm x 55mm Swedish Mauser with a oversized cast boolit at .268" instead of the usual .264" diameter that is normal for jacketed bullets. They also installed a new sizer rod to neck size the case for the proper case tension for that oversized boolit. They did these things and had them back to me in two weeks!

Oh and here is the best part:


Wait for it...







Wait for it....





It cost me $10 including return shipping! :bigsmyl2:[smilie=p:[smilie=w:

God Bless those folks at Lee!

[Lead melter]

Mounted a Weaver 2 1/2X scope on the H&R to try to get the most fair trial. Moved the target base to 92 yards, which is as far as I could go without stepping into the rainy quagmire.
National Bullet Company .379" 249 grainer over 10 grains Unique and WLR primer-3" group plus one keyhole flyer [I can't figure that one].
Oversized Lee 250 grainer atop same load resulted in nice round 1 1/2" group.
For kicks I placed a 3/4" wide stick in the ground at 45 yards and fired the last 3 rounds of the day. Three hits, all within an inch of each other.
I think I am going to be well pleased. Now to work up a bit stronger load. Anyone got experience with IMR-3031 ot H-4198 with a PB boolit?

[sundog]

Lead Melter, just fixed a seating die last night for 30 carbine. It was too tight and boolits were sticking. Tried turning the die out and seating stem in like I do on other stuff sometimes and that works okay sometimes. Not this time. Soooo, I took a chain saw file and did a hone job on it just like opening a H&I die rolling it back and forth. Only took a few minutes and it works swell. Tonite, I'll finish it with some crocus cloth just to smooth it up. I've had to open up several seating dies over the years to accomodate real boolits. I look at it like this. If I mess it up, I didn't have what I wanted to begin with. Nothing lost.